Google Music not living up to expectations (exclusive)
Google Music was supposed to have an inside track marketing music to the 200 million Android users, but performance so far is not what was expected. — Three months after launching, Google Music hasn't lived up to expectations, CNET has learned.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Music arrived in November 2011 carrying two handicaps documented all year: label talks that were 'going backwards' as far back as April, and a May beta that reviewers panned outright. It launched anyway, without all the music — a partial catalog that TechCrunch's coverage of the lackluster debut already framed as a soft landing rather than a real start.
First-order effects
- Google's core pitch — an inside track selling music to its roughly 200 million Android users — is now formally under question, with CNET reporting performance below internal expectations just three months post-launch.
- The record labels' hard line through 2011 looks vindicated: withholding full catalogs left the store thin at launch, and the weak early numbers give them evidence that Google needs them more than they need Google.
Second-order effects
- Future licensing negotiations tilt toward the labels, who can point to the shortfall as proof that distribution reach alone doesn't move units when the catalog is incomplete.
- Android's installed base stops functioning as an automatic marketing channel in partners' eyes — any future Google media push will be judged on merchandising execution, not user counts.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, it reinforces the structural rule of digital media markets: content owners, not platform operators, set the terms, and a platform that launches with a partial catalog cedes pricing and bundling power indefinitely.
- It also pressures Google to decide whether music is a strategic pillar worth conceding label demands for, or a side feature folded into Android — a fork other big-platform entrants into media have faced before.
The trend: Digital music remains a market where licensing completeness beats platform distribution scale, and Google Music is becoming the test case for whether even 200 million users can override that.